HARRINGTON - Mary Virginia Richardson, who cofounded a construction business that has been well-known throughout the Delmarva Peninsula for more than 50 years, died Saturday, Jul. 8, at Bayhealth-Kent General Hospital in Dover.
Born on Aug. 21, 1922, in Andrewville, Del., to Charles W. Collison and Mary Elizabeth Collison (née Bullock), Virginia Collison was the youngest and last-surviving of eight children. She lived on the family's Andrewville farm until her marriage to Joseph Thomas Richardson III (formerly of Philadelphia and Doylestown, Pa.) in 1951. Virginia and Joseph Richardson started what would become Joseph T. Richardson, Inc., in the 1950s as a small plumbing business. The firm grew throughout the coming decades, at times employing more than 80 people and working on major commercial, governmental, and industrial projects as far from its Harrington base as Accomack County, Va.
The Richardsons continued to work for the company after they sold it in 2000. Joseph served as the firm's president and later as a consultant until his death in 2004, and Virginia served as its secretary-treasurer and later as its bookkeeper until her death this month.
She is survived by her daughter, Virginia Richardson Schweiger; her son-in-law, James William Schweiger; her grandson, Tristan James Schweiger; her granddaughter-in-law, Christine Won Kim; and her great-grandson, Henry Tristram Schweiger.
The memorial service celebrating her life will be held at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Harrington at 11 a.m. on Friday, July 28. Internment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Memorial Fund, 190 Raughley Hill Rd., Harrington, DE 19952, or to the Lake Forest Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 450, Felton, DE 19943.
Arrangements are by the Thomas E. Melvin & Son Funeral Home Inc, Harrington, DE. Visit us at www.melvinfuneralhome.com to send flowers or sign condolence book.